Work It

It was the annual 'work weekend' in our house. Which meant that the parental units headed north and my Dad put Nate to work. This year's big project was repainting the kitchen and building new pantry shelves.

Although the color of the kitchen is still TBD (waiting for the final coat before finalizing my opinion), it feels so good to get some of these big projects done. Plus it doesn't hurt to have some friendly march madness competition going on behind the scenes.

The boys may have had all of the hard labor, but us girls were busy too. We did some raking...

We did some party planning, errands, grocery shopping, blinds-cleaning and, we did our best to enjoy this ridiculous 80 degree weather. In March. We are talking about flip flops, tank tops, and sunscreen in Marcn.

So we taught Matilda how cool bubbles are.

And we went on a nice long walk around Lake Calhoun. Between the ooo's and ahh's for Tundra and that "she is so cute" observations for Matilda, I have concluded I can never send Nate to Lake Calhoun with a baby and dog by himself or he may just never return.

I will post pictures of the kitchen once it gets done. As a little teaser--picture one whole wall in chalk-board paint. Fun times. Now, I wonder if our budget allows for a part-time chalkboard artist to come to my house each week?

Translation Tuesday: Full Meal Deal

What originally stood for an unlimited amount of access and classes to our favorite gym, has now morphed into something quite different.

The Full Meal Deal refers to the treatment of my luggage for the workday.

Yes, luggage.

You see each morning I have a backpack with my work stuff in it, a lunchbag for myself, a bottle/food bag for Tillie, my pump bag, and somedays diapers/wipes/back-up clothes as the need arises.

That is a lot of crap to schlep on top of carrying an almost 20 pound baby.

So, the full meal deal was born. Originally the full meal deal included Nate taking all of my bags out to the car, and starting it up to get it nice and toasty for us. He would do this before hopping on his bike while Tillie and I were getting ready to go to work.

Now that the weather is nice out, I suppose it is like a 'half' meal deal since I don't need the car started. But seriously, Nate is basically a part-time sherpa in the mornings.

Wet and Wilderness

It was the annual family trek to the WI Dells this year.

It proved to be three times as fun with three kids.

Every time we get these cousins together it is more and more fun to watch them all interact.

Finn is always the provider of smiles from Matilda.

Leo really likes that Matilda has lots of taggies just like him.

But is not as big of a fan of Matilda when his Mama is holding her.

Matilda was very content to sit and people watch all day.

And really, isn't that half of the fun of going to the Dells?

I mean the tattoo spotting alone could fill up an entire day.

Matilda cracked very very few smiles while at the pool.

She totally enjoyed herself.

Just wasn't a big fan of all of the adults around.

Loved smiling at the kids though.

If I hear one more comment about how serious she is I think I might explode.

Looks at this crew.

Finn still was not up to braving the "bucket" three years later, but he wasn't for lack of activities. Wave pool, basketball pool. So much fun that it tuckered this little guy out.

Tillie has taken to giving kisses, which Leo was happy to reciprocate.

Kissing cousins. Only cute until they are about 8 years old, right?

Fresh Food Fast Episode 6

Looks can be deceiving. Which is absolutely the case of this dish:

 

Because, while I understand that this Green Curry Chicken looks less than appetizing, that is the photographers fault, and not the recipe.

This recipe was pretty delicious for how healthy it was (minus the cocunut milk), and as a side bonus it brought me straight back to our Thailand trip.

It was also very easy. Emily got another cooking lesson, although to be totally honest the cooking lessons aren't very good. They aren't hands on, and usually come well before or after the meal is ACTUALLY being cooked. Less than effective for sure.

Here is a link to the recipe in case you are interested: http://www.marthastewart.com/342480/green-chicken-curry.

Contrary to what the blog reflects, we have been doing lots of cooking and lots of new recipes. It's the finding time to blog about them that is the problem....

A Very Happy 31

 From High School sweet hearts that went all out for Nerd Day....(I swear we had to try REALLY hard to pull off these looks)

to your 21st birthday (and who can really remember that)...

I am happy that we have celebrated almost 14 birthdays together.

And you are only 31.

I can't wait to keep the celebration going for many, many more years. 

Happy Birthday Nate!

To The Moon and Back

Times 2.

Tranlsation Tuesday: Leapster Til

This is not a foreshadowing of how excited Matilda will be that tomorrow is Leap Year.

No, Leapster Til is a special 'limited edition' of Matilda that comes every so often.

(Insert cute baby photo that in no way shape or form communicates what Leapster Til actually looks like because that is a photo no one wants to see)

Let me explain. When Matilda was a newborn, I admittedly went on an information expedition and ultimately overload. I'm not sure why as it quite literally drove me crazy and I was so good about not doing this while pregnant.

Anway, through the information hunt, I came across the book called the "Wonder Weeks'. Okay fine, I actually came aross the iPhone app and then learned it was a book, but whatever. I like my information digitally...sue me.

The theory of this book is that all babys go through 10 age-linked and predictable 'developmental leaps' that cause them to cry more, cling more and sleep less. Each leap has its own 'signs' beyond those three, and each leap produces different skills/abilities.

Tillie is currently in the "categories" leap, which means she is learning the world of categories and apparently that a dog is not a horse. This translates to abilities like: showing us that she know what some words mean (which she definitely knows a few like eat).. recognizes herSELF in the mirror, imitates human being (she loves to wiggle, and copy anything that daddy does), plays peekaboo by herself, tries to get us to do something again that she likes by clapping (like when we sing the bang bang song from How I Met Your Mother--don't judge us).

All I can say is that this is my new MUST HAVE item for all Moms. It could not be MORE accurate for Matilda. It is like clockwork. 33.5 weeks comes by and boom--night waking galore...crying...fussing...refusing to eat....not wanting to be set down. All of it.

Thus, Leapster Til was born. When she is going through a leap, and acting the part (see above) Nate and I say things like: "Oh yeah, this is classic Leapster Til."

I am still working on how to tell daycare about this side of Matilda. I haven't said anythign to them yet because I am pretty sure they will all think I am crazy. But it is no coincidence that when Tillie is leaping..she has some rougher days at daycare--and so do her caregivers.

And the beautiful thing about it is that it takes the guesswork out, or for me the anxiety.

If she is night-waking during a leap it doesn't bother me. I don't immediately assume she is never going to sleep again (which is what I would think prior to learning about this). And I know it is for a defined period of time. And as a bonus, even though the 'leap' lasts for 4 weeks it's not a 4 weeks leapster shit show. It's 'bursts' of leaping.

And just as quickly as it comes on, the leap ends.

And our smiley, happy, good sleeper of a daughter returns.

(insert cute photo of content, chubby baby parts)

And perhaps my favorite part of "the wonder weeks" is seeing what new skills she is working on that are causing her all of this 'stress'. And from leap to leap you can see these specific skills that they are working on emergine (also amazingly like clockwork).

Ever since this discovery, I have banished all parental reading materials. I get my BabyCenter update once a week, and I check in on The Wonder Weeks every so often so I can prepare myself for the baby that is "Leapster Til". And that is all I need.